It’s about as far from “Southern” as you can get, but over the holidays I was introduced, embarrassingly belatedly, to Stan Rogers singing “Northwest Passage”. “Anthemic” is the best word to describe it.

Born in 1949, in Hamilton, Ontario, Rogers grew up in a musical family and taught himself how to play guitar at age five. As a boy, he spent his summers in Nova Scotia – mainly in the seaside community of Canso, where his mother grew up. His time there inspired his love of maritime life and music.

Known for his lively stage performances and rich baritone voice, Rogers’ songs were deeply personal, recounting the experiences, joys and sorrows of ordinary Canadians. He attracted a growing following with the 1976 release of his first album, Fogarty’s Cove, and the raucous sea shanty, Barrett’s Privateers.

Rogers has been likened to Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie and described as one of the most talented singer-songwriters in North America by some of folk music’s biggest stars. He released four albums before his tragic death in an aeroplane fire in Kentucky on June 2, 1983, at the age of 33. The title song of his final album, Northwest Passage is widely considered one of the finest songs ever produced in Canada, and is often hailed as Canada’s unofficial national anthem. A Canadian “Waltzing Matilda” perhaps?

While it recalls the history of early explorers who were trying to discover a route across Canada to the Pacific Ocean the song’s central theme is a comparison between the journeys of these past explorers and the singer's own journey across Canada. Rogers ultimately reflects that, just as the quest for a northwest passage might be considered a fruitless one (in that a viable and navigable northwest passage was never found in the days of Franklin and his kind), a modern-day journeyer along similar paths might meet the same end.

The Northwest Passage

Sailing out of Bristol, England, in May 1497, under the anglicised name of John Cabot, Genoese maritime explorer Giovanni Caboto made the first voyage to the new world to try his luck discovering a faster, more direct trade route to the Far East. Had he been successful, the route would have traversed through the treacherous and complicated archipelago of the Canadian arctic — an immense area of water, ice, and mostly uninhabited snow and ice-covered islands.

Despite his intentions, John Cabot’s voyage ended along the coastline of eastern Canada and possibly Maine. He returned to England and eventually disappeared from history. However, over the next four centuries numerous mariners, explorers, and scientists were inspired to undertake similar voyages experimenting with different routes and charting pathways through the North Polar Region. Indeed, finding a route through the waters of the Northwest Passage became an obsession for several expeditions — many vanishing without a trace or returning home empty-handed.

Captain James Cook's final exploratory expedition also was in search of the Northwest Passage. It was to be his last-ever voyage as he was killed in Hawaii before returning home.

“The Resolution beating through the Ice, with the Discovery in the most eminent danger in the distance” on 18 August 1778 off Icy Cape, Alaska – Cook’s farthest north. Etching by John Webber, published 1792.

Rogers’ song refers to Sir John Franklin, one of the best known of the explorers as, having led two missions to try and find the passage, he set out on a third journey with two vessels the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus in 1845. The ships were last seen in Baffin Bay, and in spring 1847 they deposited an update on their progress at Victory Point.

There are later accounts stating that Franklin died in June 1847, and that the ships had been trapped in thick ice since September 1846, and thus abandoned in spring of 1848.

Multiple search expeditions were sent in the 19th century and various artifacts turned up, but there was no sign of any of the crew. As you can imagine, the crews of two ships that had seemingly vanished into thin air captured the imagination of many at the time. There were rumours that they had been reduced to cannibalism. Bodies were found in the 1980's of three crew members and famously the wreckage of the ships were found in 2014 and 2016.

*“They forged the last link with their lives: HMS Erebus and Terror, 1849-50' (the dates being artist's guesswork). Painted by William Thomas Smith*

Four hundred and eight years after the first attempt to discover and navigate a new northerly sea route to East Asia, Roald Amundsen was the first person first transit the passage entirely by ship, which he completed in 1905. He was escaping creditors who were seeking to stop the expedition.

Adopting a contrasting approach to the expeditions previously led by Franklin and McClure, who had adhered to the British tradition of exploration with expensive ships that were well-funded with supplies and modern technologies, Roald Amundsen set sail with a small crew of six on a shallow-draft vessel called the Gjøa.

As Amundsen’s expedition traveled past Baffin Island, they harbored off King William Island to take shelter from the winter. They spent two winters (1903-04 and 1904-05) in what is now a community called Gjøa Haven. They learned from the local Netsilik Inuit people how to survive in the Arctic.

In 2023, 18 yachts, 11 passenger cruise ships, and 7 commercial vessels transited the Northwest Passage over a longer period than normal.